Congress has one vital duty to perform every year-pass 12 appropriation bills to run the government for the next fiscal year. When members accomplish this, they are simply doing their job-what they were elected to do. They have proven to be inept at accomplishing this vital task. Every year, the National Commander of The American Legion testifies before a joint session of the House and Senate VA Committees, and this year was no exception. Without fail, we stress that timely enactment of this critical legislation before the start of the new year is vital. The current budget process is broken when it comes to passing the fiscal obligations of VA medical care on time. Repeatedly, The American Legion has urged Congress to provide annual Federal appropriations that are timely, predictable and sufficient. Last year, Congress was under pressure to pass the budget on time because of the election campaign season. There was no campaign pressure this year.

I made three trips to Washington making calls on various lawmakers to emphasize our three near term priorities. I visited with five Senators and 27 Representatives, and each indicated their support for getting the budget passed, but expressed the fact that it was out of their hands. They also all agreed that there was nothing controversial in the VA appropriation legislation, and that a conference committee would have little problem resolving the differences. Since it was so non-controversial, other bills were taken ahead of it, and the health care reform debate was frequently cited as a reason little work was done on any appropriation bill. The House had passed all 12 appropriation bills, so it was just a matter of getting it to the Senate floor as the full committee had finished its work.

At one point, we had indications that there was a chance the VA bill would be considered. A tentative schedule for the Senate floor debate on spending bills indicated the order would be Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment, DOD and then Mil-Con VA. But this was not to be. The new fiscal year began with a continuing resolution good for 31 days, and Congress will work to get the funding bills in place before this continuing resolution runs out.

During the last visit to DC, we got word that one Senator from Oklahoma had a “hold” on a couple of bills that would benefit veterans through the VA-S 252 and S 728. S 252 contains a number of important provisions to include one dealing specifically with women vets. I sent a tweet on it, which generated some comments on facebook. The Washington staff then put out a legislative alert via the Legislative Action Center (LAC) on the issue. When activity picked up in response to the alert, the Senator’s Staff called our Legislative Director and indicated the Senator was waiting on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimates. The alert remained in effect, and the Senator received so many calls on it that he agreed to lift the “hold” on S 728, but is still keeping the “hold” on the much bigger bill S 252, but is working closely with the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to iron out the Senator’s concerns. This is a testament to what a grassroots effort can achieve, and how important it is for as many Legionnaires as possible to be signed up to receive the alerts. When an alert is issued, its success can only occur if it results in a lot of correspondence-phone calls, emails or letters-in support of the issue.

Montana
10/2-4/09

Unlike my campaign trip to Butte, all my luggage arrived with me in Great Falls, and I didn’t have to spend the night sleeping in the Denver airport. I flew Northwest from D.C. to Great Falls via Minneapolis with some delays due to the construction in Minneapolis. Similar to last year, Leading Candidate Jimmie Foster was here to campaign, just as Cdr Rehbein and I shared the podium at their convention. It seemed like half the department met me in the airport—too many to remember them all. Cdr Jack Mitchell, NEC Sylvia Beals and her husband, Bob, ANEC Merv Gunderson, and Adj Gary White were part of the welcoming crew. I traveled alone as Larry had personal business to attend to in Florida. Bob Beals served as aide to hand out pins and take the pictures. Great job, Bob.

We proceeded to Malmstrom, Air Force Base, where we checked into our lodgings for the night, and were met by Sgt. Sakura who served as our escort to the command briefing. This is an unusual A.F.B. in that its only command is the 341st Missile Wing, commanded by Col. Mike Fortney. He gave us a detailed brief on the ICBM leg of the Triad. He commands some 4,000 enlisted and officers, with 3,000 family members. He has so many young airmen that their average age makes this the youngest A.F.B. in the world. The briefing lasted about half an hour. It turns out the colonel is a Buckeye from Dayton. Just never know where those Buckeyes will appear.

I then did about a 3-minute interview with reporter Katie Stukey of KRTV 3 in their studio. It aired at 5:30 and 10:00 Saturday evening, but those who saw it said it couldn’t have been more than 20 seconds. It is supposed to be on their Web site: www.krtv.com. Dinner was at the Cattlemen’s Cut Supper Club, and I had to settle for a filet mignon as it was too late to get any prime rib that was rare. The sacrifices one makes in the performance of one’s duties.

Saturday morning we were off to Vaughn to attend the Three Rivers District 8 meeting. Some districts in Montana have names. Sun River Valley Post 130 hosted the meeting at its post home. It’s a small, one room post with a small kitchen. The meeting was very well attended, and is conducted differently than any district meeting I’ve ever attended. After opening the meeting, District Commander Ruben Gebhardt turned the proceedings over to Dept Vice Cdr. David Driver. Dave then calls department officers to the podium who then brief the district about what is happening in the various programs. It is open for Q & A, so the blue cap district Legionnaire is getting the information straight from the source. With Jimmie giving his campaign speech, most of the morning was used. NEC Sylvia Beals called me to the front and erroneously, maliciously and falsely indicated I had nodded off at some point, and presented me with the Ruddy R. Reilley Rip Van Winkle award. It’s a pin that simply says RRR RVW Award on separate lines. Even though it wasn’t true, it was a cute pin, so I accepted it. However, it comes with rules: not to wear it is $5 and wearing it and nodding off is $5.

We went next door to the fire station for lunch. It’s a fairly new, very large building that sits on land donated by the post. There were four trucks housed there, and we were in a large open bay. There were about 65 in attendance and I made my speech right after dinner. Besides membership, I stressed the importance of getting involved in the legislative process and the need to get the VA budget passed. One post member provided a brief history of the post and the fire station. Seems the post was originally elsewhere and they picked it up and moved it to this location. Turns out it was too high to go under a bridge, so they cut it off and that’s why it has a flat roof. The fire station plans to turn the bay we were using into a two-story affair. A training room would be on the ground floor, with crew sleeping quarters and kitchen facilities upstairs. Sounds ambitious.

The afternoon session is run by the district commander, and is more like a district meeting I’m used to. They broke into their committees, then reconvened and received committee reports. They made a mistake and asked me if I had anything else to say. They got about a 15 minute discussion on market penetration and the need to improve it. Montana is just over 13 percent, and 21st in market penetration.

At the conclusion of the meeting, we got on the road to Lewistown. The department commander made some outrageous claims about cows and north/south orientation, but I won’t go into that. It took about 2.5 hours to get there as there is a 12-15 mile section that is completely dug up for resurfacing. Lodging was at the Super 8 Motel, which was near as nice as the base—NOT. Dinner was at PDC Ralph Gardner’s house which sits on top a hill and has just a gorgeous view. He’s considering selling if anyone’s interested. Janet served a superb lasagna dinner, and we had a great evening. In keeping with my tradition of drinking local beer, I’ve been drinking Pigs Ass beer, a dark Porter brewed by Harvest Moon Brewing Co. in Belt, MT. It doesn’t get any better.

Sunday, we traveled to Hobson for the Central District 9 meeting. It was hosted by Hobson Post 76 and was held in the old gymnasium of the school house. The format was the same as the 8th District meeting-dept reports in the morning, lunch, district meeting in the afternoon. The morning session ended with 1st District Cdr Shelly giving Jimmie and I a bolo each that she had made herself as a sign of respect. Lunch was also a little different in that a 9-year old fourth-grader, Mandy Eike, sang the national anthem and did a magnificent job. I talked to her for a bit-she’s been singing since she was 6 and has performed for the minor league baseball team. At the lunch, NEC Sylvia presented me with a book on the history of The American Legion in Montana, Dept. Cdr. Jack gave me a beautiful belt buckle, and Yellowstone Post 4 gave me checks totaling $1,600 for Operation Comfort Warriors. There was a reporter in the audience, and I spoke to her for a couple of minutes. She said she already had all she needed, and the Legionnaires say she writes great articles for them. Hope I see what she writes.

I rode back to Malmstrom, A.F.B. with ANEC Merv, Dept. Cdr. Jack and Leading Candidate Jimmie. Have an early flight to San Antonio for the Creative Arts Festival tomorrow morning. This was an excellent visit-got to meet a lot of Legionnaires and see some of the countryside.

Creative Arts Festival, San Antonio, TX
10/5-8/09

Another early start-0415-from Montana to pack and fly to San Antonio via Minneapolis again. It has been sleeting during the night, but is now mostly snow. A good time to leave Montana. Met up with Liz and Larry at the San Antonio airport. All of our flights were a little late, so we were pressed for time. We’re staying at the Hotel Valencia, which is an older hotel with windy hallways and poor lighting. Another hotel room with no drawers to store anything in. The Creative Arts Festival is in the Gunter Sheraton right across the street. The timing was as close as it could be for the dinner-we got there just as they finished the National Anthem. The Mistress of Ceremonies for the dinner was San Antonio’s own Heloise of the internationally syndicated column Hints From Heloise, and she was superb-her heart is definitely soft on veterans and fully supportive of the goals of the Festival. She grew up in a military family (Air Force) and she travels to military installations to speak to the troops and their families.

The guest speaker was John Gingrich (Col., USA, Ret.), the Chief of Staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs. His 30-year career was highlighted by serving as commander of a field artillery battalion during Desert Storm. He gave an excellent presentation concerning the therapeutic benefits of the Arts. While I had remarks prepared, I was not on the program as a speaker-was just introduced. There were many Legionnaires among the veterans. Also at my table was Carlene Ashworth, the national vice president of the Auxiliary. The president doesn’t arrive until the day I leave, then will be here for the final show on Sunday and miss my homecoming in Indianapolis Saturday. Such are the vagaries of scheduling.

From the Arts-Gram, the Festival is presented by the Department of the VA, The American Legion Auxiliary, and Help Hospitalized Veterans, and hosted by the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. The veterans gathered here are all national competition medal-winners from 55 VA facilities nationwide. They are part of 3,453 veterans from 123 VA facilities who entered categories within the divisions of art, creative writing, dance, drama and music at the local level. This year marked the largest number of veterans and VA facilities on record to enter the competition. These veterans have definitely experienced a remarkable journey to the Festival.

Larry and I spent time Tuesday at the Gunter. We watched a mass rehearsal of one of the songs that will be part of the show. The organizers are incredibly patient and talented at getting the diverse talent of these veterans aligned for the show. We also sat in on the Artist Interaction Session, where they announce the gold, silver and bronze winners in the various artistic categories, and the gold medal winners make a presentation that includes some of their history, treatment and inspiration for their creation. It was pretty emotional stuff. Before we left, we spent time in the exhibit room where the actual artwork was on display and is far more impressive than the slides depict.

Wednesday morning, we went to Ft. Sam Houston where the Brooke Army Medical Facility is located. Texas 20th District Commander, Joe Duarte, escorted us. We went to the Warrior & Family Support Center (WFSC), where SAL Squadron 592 was setting up to serve lunch. Bill Yates, the Director, gave us an hour tour of the facility. It is incredibly-built totally by donations-some $6.5 million to build, with $1.8 million more in landscaping. Virtually all the furniture, the many TVs, books, appliances and about all you can think of were donated, and it is magnificent. They are just over 12,000 square feet, so you can imagine how much it took to fill the building. Program Manager Judith Markelz did most of the fundraising and donation gathering. They have big plans for expansion in the future also. They now have over 700 wounded warriors, some for long term rehab, and expect that to increase. There is a lot of construction to expand the BAMC facility. I spent about 2 hours serving potato salad during the lunch. They served brisket, and the SAL cooks had been cooking since about 0200. There was plenty of food, and it was delicious. Quite a few came back for seconds, and it seemed the line would never end. I have no idea how many came through in that two-hour period. Good job SAL Squadron 592.

I was able to spend time both evenings with my youngest sister, Brenda, who moved to San Antonio two years ago from the mountains of West Virginia. I hadn’t seen her in a lot of years, so it was great to be able to spend some time with her and her husband, Jack.

This two-day visit was short, but as I had never been to a Creative Arts Festival and seen these incredibly talented veterans before, it was well worth the trip.